Bowl conclusions: The American Athletic Conference was over-hyped. That's fine

Bowl season is over for the G5. Houston served as the flagship school for the G5 this year and for the second straight season a G5 representative defeated a P5 school in a New Year's Six bowl.

The lasting impression for the college football world: G5 schools can not only play with the big boys, but also win. So for the second straight year G5 conferences will have bragging rights. But which G5 conference has the most to brag about?

The AAC may have the best G5 team. But that's it.

American: 2-6

Best Win: Houston over Florida State

Biggest Disappointment: Temple

Stock Market: Falling

You can certainly make a case that Cincinnati getting demolished by San Diego State in the Hawaii Bowl could replace Temple in the biggest disappointment category but the Bearcats were a 7-5 also ran in the AAC. Temple meanwhile was a game away from representing the G5 in the Peach Bowl and lost to a team who had just replaced their head coach.

Can you imagine if the Owls won the AAC and squared off against Florida State in the Peach Bowl? Rather than hearing about how Houston has set themselves to potentially crash the four-team playoff next year and how the G5 defeated another P5 school in a big bowl game, again, we would instead be listening to how superior P5 teams are.

Yeah, not good.

With Houston, Navy, Memphis and Temple being a constant mainstay in the polls this year the AAC entered bowl season with a ton of expectations but the big four only went 2-2.

Of course, the AAC did notch two wins over P5 opponents but the conference finished 0-4 against G5 opponents.

The AAC was overhyped as they lost a ton of credibility when stacked against their fellow G5 conference mates. But that's fine. They still have the best G5 team and because Houston defeated Florida State the AAC boasts the best bowl win by far out of G5 conferences.

Houston will be clear favorites going into next year but it looks like the rest of the league will take a clear step back after keeping pace with the Cougars for much of the season as Navy and Memphis both have to replace their quarterbacks.

Although the Cougars will be the G5 best chance to nab a playoff bid next year, the AAC did Houston no favors in boosting their chances with their poor bowl performance.

For a conference that sent eight teams to the postseason a 2-6 record is a huge disappointment. At least they still have Houston.